Road Trip Part 3

Between work and car accidents, I haven't had time to post the last leg of the road trip to Atlanta. We started out from the hotel in Atlanta at something called a cyclorama, which was a 42' high, 360 degree painting of the battle of Atlanta. You are seated stadium style and rotated (slowly) while the narrator points out key pieces of the battle and the painting. From there, on to Graceland. Have to say it in pictures.



The infamous jungle room. Yeah, that's green shag carpeting ON THE CEILING!



This used to be a raquetball court.



From there we went to the Jack Daniels distillery in Tennessee and the Clinton presidential library in Little Rock. Then home and back to work. That's a tromp l'oeil wooden bench. You can sit on Hillary's lap.



Tomorrow, bright and early, we are off to return to the Boundary Waters Wilderness Canoe Area. We have hubby and me, his parents, Jess and two of her friends. The kids didn't want to portage this year, so we are taking a long haul across a big lake and setting up camp. I have some home remedies for mosquitoes (that smell ever so nasty) that I'm hopeful will keep them at bay. I'll let you know . . .

Footnote: We went out for Chinese last night for my birthday and Trevin's fortune cookie said this: You will soon be crossing great waters on a fun vacation. Bodes well for the mosquito situation. Indeed.

Close Call

Every time my daughter leaves in her vehicle, I say a prayer for her safety, and I thank God for keeping her safe. He sure came through last night.

Jess and her BFF, Trevin, were driving in the dark on a dirt road (not much else to do in these parts) when a deer jumped in front of the car. Trev swerved to miss it (instinctual) and they went into a ditch and hit a tree. The impact was on the right front, so the side air bags deployed. That's where Jess was sitting.




They called the police and the parents. Several cars driving by stopped and asked if they could help. One of them was coming home from a weekend at the lake and had water in his cooler, which they greatly appreciated. The tow truck came and they got back into town a little after midnight. Jess had a huge bruise on her right arm and something of a burn from the air bag. She and I went to the chiropractor. He x-rayed her to make sure nothing was broken and fixed her up as much as possible. She's just going to be sore for awhile. We went down later to get some stuff out of the car. Not a pretty sight.





So again, praise to God for keeping them safe, and thank God for air bags and seat belts. And kids that, after that ordeal, are able to walk away and be goofballs.

Road Trip Part 2

Hubby had a seminar Saturday, so my camera and I set out to explore Atlanta. We started at the aquarium.





From there, we went to the Rhodes house, also known as 'the castle on Peachtree Street.' It was built in 1904 by Amos Rhodes, a furniture magnate, in Romanesque Revival style, copied from some castles Amos saw in Europe. It was one of the first places in Atlanta to have electric lights. It also had a form of security system and an intercom system. Quite avant garde.



Those tall windows on the curved part of the building are protected from the sun from the outside because they are marvelous on the inside.



They appear to be stained glass, but they are actually painted. A pair of brothers from Germany painted some windows that won awards at the world's fair. Amos commissioned them to paint windows depicting scenes from the United States Civil War, and they are amazing.



There was a period beginning in the sixties when the house was empty for about two decades. City officials were afraid the windows would be damaged or vandalized, so they moved them (keep in mind, they are 15 feet tall) AND the mahogony staircase, to the archives building until they reopened the home for tourists. I'd kind of like to know how you go about moving such things.

From the Rhodes house, I went to the Margaret Mitchell house and saw where she wrote "Gone With the Wind," pretty cool. Then the Atlanta History Center and back to the hotel to rest up for the Jack Daniels distillery and Graceland on the way back home.